“New Report on the Anti-Women Voting Record of the 112th Congress Identifies 55 Anti-Women Votes by House Republicans”

“Today Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Subcommittee on Health Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Member Diana DeGette, and Committee members Lois Capps, Jan Schakowsky, Tammy Baldwin, Doris O. Matsui, Donna Christensen, and Kathy Castor released a new report on the extreme anti-women agenda of the House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. Since the beginning of the 112th Congress in January 2011, the Republican-controlled House has cast 55 votes for anti-women policies that undermine women’s health, roll back women’s rights, and defund programs and institutions that provide support for women.

“House Republicans have voted repeatedly for legislation that would be harmful to women’s health and women’s rights,” said Rep. Waxman. “I have worked for decades to promote equality for women, but the bipartisan support for women’s programs that used to exist in Congress has been shattered by tea party extremism. The Republican-controlled House has become the most anti-women House in modern history.”

The report, prepared by the Democratic staff of the Energy and Commerce Committee, found that the House passed an average of one anti-women vote for every week that it has been in session for the 112th Congress. These votes constitute almost 5% of all House legislative votes taken since January 2011.

The 55 votes have targeted women in a multiple ways: 17 votes have allowed health insurance companies to discriminate against women; 11 votes have cut women’s access to preventive care; 10 votes have restricted or rolled back abortion rights or access to legal abortion; 7 votes have cut funding for key nutritional votes for women; 3 votes have blocked access to reproductive and maternal care services; 3 votes have undermined the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and 14 votes have weakened environmental laws that protect pregnant women from toxic chemicals. The Republican budget drafted by Rep. Ryan further weakens many existing programs and institutions that support and protect women.

“The House of Representatives has voted repeatedly for an extreme anti-women agenda in the 112th Congress. Since January 2011, the Republican-controlled House has voted 55 times to undermine women’s health, roll back women’s rights, and defund programs and institutions that provide health care and support for women.

House Republicans have voted to strip women of access to preventive health care and contraception, to eliminate federal support for reproductive and maternal care services, to cut funds for important nutrition programs for pregnant women, nursing mothers, and families, and to allow insurers to discriminate against women and charge them more than men for health insurance policies. They have voted against passing, improving, and funding important programs like the Violence Against Women Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They have voted to end the basic guarantees that the Medicare and Medicaid programs provide to low-income women or women who are seniors. They have voted to increase the exposure of pregnant women and women of childbearing age to dangerous toxic chemicals. And they have voted numerous times to restrict women’s access to legal abortions.

The House of Representatives averaged one anti-women vote for every week that the House has been in session since Republicans took control in January 2011. Almost 5% of all House legislative floor votes since the beginning of 2011 have been anti-women votes. During these roll calls, 95% of Republican members voted for the position that was harmful to women, while 90% of Democratic members voted for the pro-women position.

This analysis, prepared at the request of Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman, Subcommittee on Health Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Ranking Member Diana DeGette, and Committee members Lois Capps, Jan Schakowsky, Tammy Baldwin, Doris O. Matsui, Donna Christensen, and Kathy Castor, provides a summary of the 55 times that House Republicans have voted against women in 2011 and 2012. Among these votes are:

Seventeen votes to allow health insurance companies to discriminate against women by charging women higher premiums than men or denying women coverage based on “pre-existing conditions” like being pregnant.

Eleven votes that cut women’s access to preventive care, including votes to repeal Affordable Care Act provisions that provide free preventive care for women and votes to eliminate the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which is used to support breastfeeding and immunizations and is budgeted to pay for breast and cervical cancer screenings for hundreds of thousands of women in 2013 and beyond.

Ten votes to restrict or roll back abortion rights or access to legal abortion, including votes to ban the use of federal funds to train medical students in the provision of abortions, votes to allow hospitals to deny emergency abortions to women’s whose lives are in jeopardy, and votes to prohibit the District of Columbia from using local funds to pay for abortions.

Seven votes to cut funding for key nutrition programs for women, including votes for significant cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) that provides nutrition, food counseling, and support for more than nine million low-income pregnant women, new mothers, and infants each month.

Six votes against protections for women from violence and discrimination, including votes against protecting the confidentiality of domestic violence victims, votes to oppose additional funding for grants under the Violence Against Women Act, and votes to place new restrictions on the citizenship rights of legal, foreign- born women who are victims of domestic violence.

Three votes to block access to reproductive and maternal care services, including votes for a budget that prohibits funding of Planned Parenthood and eliminates funding for the Title X Family Planning Program, which provides family planning services for millions of low-income women every year.

Three votes to undermine Medicare and Medicaid programs, including votes to end the basic Medicare guarantee and votes to turn Medicaid into a block grant, slash $800 billion in existing federal support for state Medicaid programs, and repeal $640 billion of new Medicaid funding from the Affordable Care Act over the next ten years.

Fourteen votes to weaken environmental laws that protect pregnant women, including votes to block EPA regulations that would protect pregnant women and women of childbearing age from exposure to mercury, a potent neurotoxin that poses particular risks to the brain and nervous system of unborn children.The remainder of this report provides a more detailed summary of the anti-women votes passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

The House has voted 17 times to repeal or weaken the provisions in the Affordable Care Act that prevent health insurers from discriminating against women.

Women are often charged significantly higher premiums than men for their health insurance and are denied coverage for “pre-existing conditions” like pregnancy, having had a Caesarian section, or even being victims of domestic violence. The same health insurance policy can cost women as much as 85% more than a man. A policy that costs a 25-year-old man $1,700 per year can cost a 25-year-old woman more than $3,100.1

The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010, ends this practice: starting in 2014, it bans discrimination by insurance companies on the basis of gender and prohibits insurers from denying women coverage or charging women more for their coverage because of their reproductive choices, because they have been the victim of domestic violence, or because of a pre-existing condition.

Six times, House Republicans have voted to repeal this law and eliminate its landmark protections for women.

House Republicans have also voted nine times to defund implementation of the health care law, effectively eliminating the new prohibitions on health insurance discrimination against women. They have voted to prohibit any funds from being spent on implementing the law,to stop the use of funds to pay the salaries of federal employees who implement the law, to defund efforts to defend the Affordable Care Act in Court.